I’m currently preparing some information to help people set up their monitors correctly.
The most common complaint with print/screen matching seems to be that people are seeing their prints as too dark compared with their monitor. This has been discussed here several times and it’s generally recommended to run monitors at a brightness level of about 100-120cdm or even lower. This is usually much lower than the default monitor setting.

I wonder if people would be kind enough to comment with what brightness setting they’re calibrating to, on what monitor and what brightness setting that corresponds to with the on screen controls.
For example I use a NEC Spectraview at 110cdm which is set to 53.8% brightness and 50% contrast.

Thanks in advance.

Paul Holman

Display luminance should be based on viewing conditions (ideally of the light booth next to the display). There's no right value, other than the one which provides a match! One if the nice capabilities of some of the Fluorescent light boxes (like my GTI) is a digital dimmer which allows me to sync the two up easier and allowing me to at least start at 150cd/m2 on my NEC's.

That's not anywhere as easy to do with Solux but doable with the right fixtures and/or distance.

Andrew,

You seem to have read far too much into my simple request for information.

My request wasn't asking for advice on what best practice is, I know that already thanks, all I'm interested in is what numbers people are actually using to get decent results to gain some sort of overview of what works for a range of people.

You say you're working to 150cdm on an NEC ?, so what % is that on the OSD ?

Paul

I have no idea, I set this in SpectraView software.

And just to add to that, Solux lighting requires 4 wire electrical wiring if you want to control it with the type of variable dimmer that the MR-16 fixtures require. Here's the dimmer that I recommend: http://www.smarthome.com/2476dh.html. Combined with well placed bulbs and adequate diffusion, expanding viewing booth lighting into your whole work area is phenomenal for your workflow and sense of well being. It's the holy grail people should be encouraged to shoot for! I rarely see a use for my variable light booth now and don't like the lower quality florescent light when I do.

I use two different settings depending on which of two papers I happen to be using.

Hahnemuehle Photo Rag Bright White:

Contrast..........100%
Brightness.........42.1%

Jessops Heavyweight Photo Matt

Contrast..........100%
Brightness.........46%


For viewing websites etc. I leave the thing on at the Hahnemuehle setting and it all looks pretty good to me.

Monitor: Mitsubishi Diamond Pro 930 SB

The point is, I print mainly in b/w and the tonality using those settings is the closest to WYSIWYG on paper that I have come up with.

This probably drives digi gurus nuts - I apologise, but it works for me.

Rob C

I have Lutron dimmers that will work too.

Of course, you dim them, you alter their color. But sill nice to have.

Thanks Rob, that's an interesting approach.

Do you use different profiles for each setting ?

;-)
No apologies needed, if it works for you.......

What about using multiple Solux bulbs with overlapped coverages and each bulb individually swithed? That way full color spectrum could be maintaind while allowing variable light output, granted adjustment would be granaular.

Forgot to mention I am using 90 cdm with Eye One Match 3 cal unit. I fine prints still a bit too dark.

Right, they now offer the same combined magnetic low voltage and electronic low voltage support that my electrician says is a really good thing to look for.
Just like flourescent GTI and Just Normlicht viewing booths right? With either setup one can find the luminance they are seeking, calibrate their display to match and use the on/off switch to toggle the light without messing up the variable dial.

The OSD reports what the monitor is set to regardless of how the settings are changed, manually or via software like Spectraview.

Keeping a record of what it sets the brightness to might be useful in the long term to spot any signs of the backlight degrading.

I use two paper settings that come bog standard with the HP B9180.

For the Hahnemuehle paper I use the HP Smooth Fine Art setting (also for Epson Heavyweight Matte).

For the Jessops paper - Heavyweight Photo Matt - I use their recommended HP setting which is HP Premium Paper.

As I said, this isn´t rocket science but it lifts me off the ground.

I did download a profile from Hahne to suit the printer, but it was awful, so I use the one I do.

All that said, I´m just using up the papers other than the Hahne, if only because I want to standardise on something and the weight of the Hahne just takes it into another dimension. As, unfortunately, does the price. I hate switching from one thing to another because I feel that one never gets to know anything well enough doing a Jumping Jack Flash, and as my output isn´t such a big deal, I can bear the cost.

Rob C

140cdm on an NEC LCD 2690 WUXi at 0% brightness with spectraview2.I just go by what spectraview tells me and it's way to bright for me but matches my prints.EXACTLY !

Thanks Peter


Zero percent ? I've never come across that before, but if it works for you..............

I'm in a dark room and have Glaucoma. Things get either WAY bright or way dark.
Fun driving at night.

Excellent question. I have found many monitor calibration sw/hw depends on how a monitor's brightness/contrast is set up to begin with. Yet, not many would go into details on how to do this well. Here's an article and an utility that I find helpful.

http://www.aim-dtp.net/aim/calibration/bla...nd_contrast.htm

http://www.softpedia.com/get/Multimedia/Vi...itor-Test.shtml

The settings provided in some posts here are not much help, since the monitor model/age and viewing conditions are all different.

If you should write your own tutorial, please post here.

Yes. My ambient light consists of two sixty watt bulbs in heavily shaded lamps about 15 feet away from the display. So my viewing conditions are dim enough to let the display dominate, while I can see what I'm doing on the keyboard without eyestrain. I'm using a LaCie 321 and it is profiled and calibrated with ColorEyes Display. I have the brightness parameter set to 110 cd. This is quite dim as far as displays go, but the display accommodates it, and when I view the prints from my Epson 3800, whatever the paper, under Solux illumination (I have an overhead track of them across the office cieling) the brightness of the printed images come very, very close to what I see on the display. I think many people suffer the problem you describe and the solution is to dim the display very suibstantially. Exactly how much "depends", so it takes some experimenting. This forces you to pump the brightness of the image file so it prints adequately. All this procedure does is largely compensate for the different viewing effect provided by transmitted light on the one hand and reflected light on the other.

Or increase the luminance of the lighting. And hopefully, upgrade to higher quality, high CRI lighting as well - that goes a long way toward print to screen matching.

Scott - no - at least not in the scenario I described here. Think of the illumination under which most people view prints most of the time. The bank of Solux beaming from my ceiling is probably somewhat brighter than most typical print viewing conditions, so if I find 110cd display illumination comes close to matching my Solux, the display could be toned down even further to match print viewing conditions that are less bright.